Second Chance

Chapter 11

Chapter 11: Mistakes and Friends
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As the team ran alongside the chosen route to Nami the Rokudaime couldn't help but feel a sense of dread settling into his stomach. His team should have been the one to receive the Wave mission and yet Kurenai was sent instead. There was no way that Sakura and Kiba could handle Zabuza and Haku. Shino would be able to keep calm but with little support from his team he wouldn't last long. Kurenai, Naruto had decided, was a lost cause. A special jonin in name only she barely had the skills necessary to lead her team and even though he knew that they hadn't been ready for a C-rank. He never did understand the kunoichi. She never really did anything for Hinata and to him it seemed as if any progress that was made with Shino and Kiba in the original time was because of their clans and that she had barely a hand to do with any of it. Hinata used to tell him stories of how Kurenai seemed to baby her from most anything. It was disheartening to know that someone who was so intent on protecting the one that she saw as a sister fall so far behind and endanger her even more but not acknowledging the fact that she was only making it worse.

"Hey sensei, did the message say how team eight was faring?" He asked breaking the silence. Kakashi turned slightly to look at the genin.

"Just that they had been ambushed and that they needed backup. I was instructed to take the team and head to Nami immediately to act as backup. I have no idea how bad it is or if they continued moving after sending the request." He replied. 'Probably did.' Naruto thought to himself thinking of Kiba's personality. They had been a lot alike always overestimating their abilities and never admitting that they may be over their head. However, while Naruto had learned his lesson Kiba never had and that was why the Inuzuka died on his last mission. He hadn't called for backup when he realized that he was out numbered. Despite the fact that he had been K.I.A Naruto had denied him from being added to the memorial stone due to the fact that he had died due to his own stupidity. Sakura had protested but he had merely ignored her. As far as he was concerned, show boating and stupidity should not be rewarded the same way as those that died like true heroes.

For his part Kakashi was thinking along the same lines as the future Hokage. He had to admit that Kurenai had not been ready to take her genin squad on this mission and that the tokubetsu jonin should have turned around as soon as she realized that she was out of her league. Instead she had decided to endanger the life of three genin one of which was a clan heir. He knew that if anything happened to Shino because of her the Aburame clan would never let the Sandaime live down his decision to form that team. He could only pray that Kurenai had decided to stay put and wait for the reinforcements. Somehow he doubted that she had made that call. By the time that the team reached the water they had yet to run into the genjutsu user and her team. For Naruto the feeling was growing stronger as he realized that they probably ran into Zabuza and for all they knew everyone was already dead. Crossing the water on foot they picked up speed as they neared the clearing that undoubtedly held the injured team.

Kurenai was having a bad day. She had been convinced that her team could handle the C-rank escort. It was just a bridge builder after all. Who could possibly want the old drunk dead? Then they had been attacked by chunin level ninja approximately a few hours from Konoha. After incapacitating them she attempted to interrogate them but they had decided to use their suicide pills instead leaving them with two very dead shinobi. She knew that she should have asked Tazuna for more information but at the time she had yet to make the connection. He was still just a drunk bridge builder. She sent the request and then continued on. She knew that if aid was sent then there would be at least one more jonin so there as little chance that they would be in to much danger right?

She had been naive in thinking that the next shinobi that would attack would be just the same as the last two. Never had she believed that she would be facing Zabuza Momochi. One of the seven swordsman. They had been able to dodge his first attack but after that the fight went downhill. He had demanded that they hand over the bridge builder and that was when Kurenai realized that she had fucked up. The next attack had been sudden and while she had deflected it she had not gotten away unscathed. The genin were no better. Shino had managed to avoid any serious damage but Sakura and Kiba had been completely hopeless. Sakura had decided that she was going to scream and cry instead of protect the client and Kiba had attacked Zabuza insisting that he was no big deal. His gallant, and rather stupid, plan backfired immediately and because of that both Akamaru and Kiba were severely wounded. She could only hope that backup arrived soon.